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Hello friends. It is 11:45 pm right now and we are about 30 minutes into a 2 hour bus ride from our performance this evening to our hotel in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. We had a very eventful day today. We began our morning by leaving Haifa and heading north towards the Crusader port city of Acre (pronounced Acco). This was a significant place in the time just preceding the War of independence in 1946 as many political prisoners from the pre-state resistance groups (the Hagana, Irgun and Stern Gang with members Menachem Begin and Itzaak Shamir who both became prime ministers of Israel) were held prisoner here buy the British. There were 9 Israelis who were hanged for their part in the resistance. There is an old movie, Exodus, about the escape of the Israeli prisoners from this prison. It is important for us to visit sites like this to understand the history of the formation of the current State of Israel and to see how the hand of God moved to bring His nation back into existence.

 

From there we headed south towards the first of the 2 shows that we did today. The first was at a water park in a community south of Netanya called Shefayim. It was closed to the public today and only solders who serve in the border police and their families were there so we performed for them. The border police are the ones who guard the city of Jerusalem and deal with all of the uprisings in and around the city. They have very stressful positions so it was a blessing to us to get to give them an hour of relaxation and entertainment.

 

Once the show was over we packed up our gear and headed out for Moshav Manov, a community outside of Tel Aviv which is where Shimon, our guide, lives. He arranged this show for us to do to bless this community. Uzi Essner, our vocal arranger,  came to see us at this performance as well as several folks from his choir. It was a great night and we had a lot of fun. The people were very blessed and really seemed to enjoy the show. After the show we received a great treat. The choir from this community then blessed us by performing about 6 songs for us. They were GREAT and you could see the joy they have in singing on their faces as they performed for us. We got to have some food and drink with them after the show and then we packed up the bus for our drive.

 

As I said at the beginning, we are on the bus right now heading to Tiberias. Most everyone is sleeping but there are a few "die hards" who are awake. It was a long, hot day for us as we were out in the sun most of the day but it was truly a day of blessing for all of us. We were not only able to do our show two times today but we received a blessing from the choir at Mosahv Manov when they sang for us. God has been so good to us and we are thankful for every step we get to take in this land and for every minute we get to spend here in the land of Israel.

 

Michael's throat is feeling better and please be praying for Debi Laird. She was feeling kind of dizzy this evening during the performance. Otherwise we are happy and more than grateful to be here....the first time for many of us and once again for the rest of us. We serve an amazing God who has given us an incredibly special honor to come sing and dance for the people of Israel. We thank God for His special gift to us and we are thankful for each of you for your support and prayers!